Greetings Ospreys,
Ninth and 10th grade families--please be sure to sign up for a time slot for Student Led Conferences (SLCs), which are scheduled for Tuesday, March 15, 4-6pm! Select juniors will schedule their SLCs directly with Julian.
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9th grade: sign up here
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10th grade: sign up here
We now have waitlists for next fall's 9th, 10th and 11th grades. Current families, please be sure to complete Fall 2022 Registration for Returning Students as soon as possible, and no later than after spring break. New student registration materials were sent out this week, with a deadline to complete by Monday, March 14 in order to claim the seat offered. It's exciting to see such strong interest in enrollment for Fall 2022! |
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Next Week's Events
The class of 2024 embarks upon career exploration and service work with Sophomore Inspire Week next Monday. They'll be off campus Wednesday through Friday, supporting various community partners while gaining valuable hands-on work experience.
Mitchell Bidart is launching Connected next Monday as part of his 20% Project for Humanities 9, providing a technology-free zone in Ashley's classroom on Mondays during lunch for students and staff to interact IRL. All are welcome--unplug and plug in to new friendships! While we're talking about how cool Mitch is, check out the creative approach he used in his most recent Math 9 project, where he used his love for gymnastics to illustrate some key geometry concepts; have a look on the math page of Mitch's digital portfolio.
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Staffing and Hiring Updates
Beloved World Language teacher Susy Raleigh is retiring at the end of this school year after 9 years at AHS teaching Spanish and French, and many more before that teaching in our community and beyond. We're excited to share that Jessica McCallum will move over to the World Language department, where she'll share her fluent Spanish skills with students, while continuing to supporting the Quill Media team through her Journalism elective. This means that we now officially have an open Humanities Teacher position to fill for the 22/23 school year. Please spread the word to fabulous candidates!
The application deadline for our open Head of School position is March 15. Stay tuned for information about opportunities to meet the candidates in April. We are also currently accepting applications to fill our Physics Teacher and Digital Arts Teacher vacancies for Fall 2022; full details here. |
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Sophomores Deciding the Fate of Afghanistan
Maddie Tharp, Animas Quill
Rustling papers, low voices, and banging gavels: the tell-tale signs of a United Nations conference, except that this conference was being run by the sophomore class of Animas High School.
The topic that the Animas Model United Nations gathered to discuss was the growing Afghanistan humanitarian crisis, and each of the students took the topic with the same seriousness as any real United Nations delegate. The delegates first gave their speeches at the podium; each one was short but extremely well written with deep critical thinking and powerful emotion. Then the students, guided by the chairs, navigated their way through multiple caucuses, moderated and unmoderated, where the students could debate with each other, gather allies, and write their resolutions and amendments to those resolutions. The students could then give speeches to defend the resolutions they had written and further debate with each other.
Parents, teachers, and fellow students sat in the viewing gallery to watch the amazing brain power of the sophomores as they decided on how to solve the extremely difficult, multifaceted problem. “I thought it[the conference] went great!” sophomore Humanities teacher Lori Fisher commented. “ I was really impressed with the sophistication of the speeches and the positions the delegates took. They sounded like real UN delegates. I'm also really impressed by the active diplomacy that some delegates took to develop consensus and cooperation.”
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After even more debate, discussion, and compromise, the morning pod delegates finally had written about 3 resolutions and spoken on them. Finally, the moment all the delegates had waited for: the voting that would decide on the resolution that could solve the entire situation. With a 17 to 3 vote resolution, Resolution 3 was passed, written by Hudson Curry (Afghanistan), Joe Dalsaso (China), and Zoell Lhomi (Russia). The main actions that the resolution called for is for the US (Finn Brunner) to take accountability for the decline of the quality of life and worsened humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, for the US and other countries to unfreeze Afghanistan assets and to provide food, medicine, and other supplies for the next five years. In return, the Taliban would give women more rights and accept them back into workplaces.
The students were still abuzz after the conference was adjourned, and the conversations about current events and world politics continued independently. Many of them even expressed their wish to do another conference about the current happenings in Ukraine.
Sophomore delegate, Illyria Brunner (Iran) explained, “The MUN project got me more involved with the world around me, it got me more connected to the people around me. It was just really cool that this group of people that may not agree about anything got together to create a solution to help other people. It was really amazing.”
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Senior Project Update
Mya Oyler, Animas Quill
Senior Project thesis papers are heating up for seniors as they move into writing for their projects! They spent last week outlining in depth to set themselves up for a successful paper. Outline consisted of four parts and the seniors spent one-two days outlining each part.
Part one was focused on introducing the topic. Within this part, seniors entice people in with a hook as well as featuring a developed thesis statement. Part two displayed and necessary historical context to understand their main topic. This historical context provided a segway into part three where seniors promoted their arguments. Part four concluded the text and added analysis to their arguments.
Senior Naima van Tyn emphasized the importance of outlining. “The outline’s purpose is to help us sort through the research we've done and write a complex thesis without getting lost in the details. It also helps us see where our research is really strong as well as where we may need more to support our claims.”
The outlining work was completed last week so that they could begin writing this week. They spent Monday writing their introductions, Tuesday and Wednesday on their historical context, and started part three on Thursday and they will continue to write it through next week.
This will set them up to meet the rough draft deadline of March 14. After this deadline, they will move into critique the week before and during spring break and finalize their papers after break. Once they have completed their papers, the seniors will move into action project work for 5 weeks.
Seniors have also been assigned Senior Project Advisors which are teachers with areas of expertise in their projects that will help guide their work. Senior Humanities teacher Sara Price echoed this stating, “Students are assigned advisors to ensure that students have a resource to meet someone that has a deeper understanding of the content they're learning. I run Senior Projects in Humanities and so many of the projects are not humanities based, so I cannot be a resource for everyone in terms of their research.” The seniors have met with their advisors twice thus far; once to analyze their research question and help with research and the second time to work through their outlines.
Although this semester has not been easy, the work that the seniors have been producing this semester shows a lot of effort and dedication to their topics. Sara boasted about the student work explaining, “The Senior Projects this semester are some of the best I've seen in years. Whether it's the content, the action projects, or the depth of knowledge, they've been doing amazing.” The work that has been assigned for this project is challenging, however there are many useful skills that the seniors will bring along with them to college and life beyond high school.
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Guest Speaker in Wilderness Self Rescue
Nizhoni Benally, Animas Quill
Guest speaker Leo Lloyd came to Animas High School on the March 3 to speak with AHS’s new class, Wilderness Self Rescue (WSR) on rescues in the backcountry.
WSR is a new class this semester and is being taught by AHS teacher Ande Lloyd. Leo Lloyd is a rescuer in the backcountry, so Ande invited him to come speak with his two classes.
Leo spoke to the class about many things, such as situations that have happened in the backcountry, situations where you would need to act quickly, and common mistakes someone may make and could cost someone their life. He claimed that he was happy “to give [the students of AHS] something to think about… as far as what they may eventually like to do” and he described, “having an impact on a student [as a] really huge blessing.” Leo stated that he was also “impressed with the enthusiasm and attentiveness of the students.”
Leo believes that WSR is a good class for AHS to have as it “gives a student something to think about and helps them make good decisions when they’re presented with specific hazards related to being in the mountains here.” Leo was a very helpful and insightful speaker to the WSR class and is sure to be impactful on the students.
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Helping Ukraine from Home
Maddie Tharp, Animas Quill
With the current events concerning the attacks on Ukraine by Russia, many people in Durango, although quite far from those events, are concerned about the safety of Ukrainian citizens. People in Durango are acting upon their concerns. In particular, Alena and Vladimir Koshevoy are taking up the call for action. Vladimir has lived in the US for many years now, but his wife Alena has only lived here for a little over a year and they both still have many family members and friends back in Ukraine who are now in direct danger. Alena is fiercely passionate about helping the people still in Ukraine.
Last Sunday, at the Durango Veterans of Foreign Wars outpost, Alena organized a gallery walk with beautiful art donated by local artists for sale and a meeting to discuss further actions that will be taken on the matter. “This money will go to support people great[ly]! We have family in this place and now it is really dangerous and in Kyiv the same. My brother must sleep in the bomb shelters and we are trying to help for [the] creation of bomb shelters,” Alena recounted.
Alena next plans to hold a march in downtown Durango. The march will take place Sunday, March 6 from 1:00 to 3:00pm. They will meet in front of the Durango Rug Company with signs to show solidarity, support, and raise awareness for those who are suffering in Ukraine. All are welcome and all are encouraged to attend!
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AHS Enrollment Lottery; Our School Is Hitting the Jackpot
Za Barrett, Animas Quill
The Animas High School enrollment lottery was run this Tuesday, March 1 for next year's 9th, 10th, and 11th grades. It was the first time in years that a lottery has been run for 3 grades at once, a significant milestone for our school.
Animas is gaining an impressive reputation in the community, and spots are more and more sought-after. "Interest in AHS is very strong," wrote Assistant Head of School Libby Cowles in an email to the student ambassador team, "due in part to our new building, but also, of course, because of our outstanding teachers and students!"
The selection process for non-legacy students is completely random. Each grade has a limit of 52 students. After the lottery, all spots in the first 3 grades have been filled, with waitlists for each. In 10th grade, no spots at all were open; the lottery only ran to determine the order of the waitlist.
As they become more valued, spots are less readily available to prospective students than they have been in the past. "We have seen significant increases in student retention rates over the past several years, meaning those who come to AHS are less likely to leave than they were before," Libby mentioned.
A handful of future freshpeople were able to bypass the lottery through Animas's legacy program. According to school registrar Maureen Truax, "Any enrolling student who has a sibling or a parent that is currently part of the school will automatically be offered a spot, as long as they filled out the Intent to Enroll by [February 28]."
"It's a really exciting time for AHS," added Maureen, with a smile. Especially compared to previous years, this year's enrollment has been a shining success! As interest and competition for spots increases, one thing is certain--in this lottery, Animas is always a winner.
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Enjoy the weekend and thanks for all you do to help the Ospreys soar!
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Upcoming Events
Sophomore Inspire Week (10th grade): Mon. 3/7 through Fri. 3/11
4th Quarter XBlock Classes Begin: Wed. 3/9
AHS Board Meeting: Thurs. 3/10, 5:30pm
Student-Led Conferences (9th through 11th grades): Tues. 3/15, 4-6pm
Spring Break: Mon. 3/21 through Fri. 3/25
Professional Development Day (no classes): Mon. 3/28
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Animas High School prepares all students for college and postsecondary success by creating critical thinkers and engaged citizens through an innovative, student-centered, project-based curriculum. We accomplish this through:
Rigorous academics, where all students are prepared for college success
Culture of excellence, where students are held to high expectations
Strong student-faculty relationships, where students are well known.
Engaging learning, where students see the relevance in their education
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